Embedding obstacle avoidance to trajectory tracking for unicycle mobile robots

This paper proposes a new reactive method to avoid obstacles during trajectory tracking, considering unicycle mobile robots navigating in semi-structured environments, which can be used in association with any trajectory tracking controller. A meaningful improvement in the obstacle avoidance process is achieved analyzing the layout of the obstacles in relation to the planned trajectory. Experimental results show that the evasion algorithm is fairly efficient, reducing the time spent to avoid obstacles and shortening the path traveled by the robot during such procedure as well.